


On Call

by Enx2103



Series: Best of Snap Shots [5]
Category: Life with Derek, Scrubs (TV)
Genre: F/M, Medical, Surgeons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 01:24:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19861243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enx2103/pseuds/Enx2103
Summary: Med school was Casey's plan all along (and Daddy paid her tuition) but it wasn't Derek's. "More school?" he groaned, slamming his head against a table. "This is never ending!"





	On Call

**A Snap Shot:  
On Call**

Nobody believed Derek when he told them what he did for a living. A surgeon? No way in hell. But actually... _yes_ _way_.

It started freshman year at Queens. He took all the same classes Casey did, which wasn't hard because so early in the year they all had general classes. He liked the idea of taking classes with her because he thought it would make it an easy ride (read: cheat off Casey). But that was the furthest from the truth. It actually just meant that he was stuck in Casey's dorm room or the library on some nights, cramming together. They were their own study group for every single class.

Needless to say, that was a lot of Casey. But he didn't complain because sure, he hated studying, but he had to keep his GPA up in order to keep his hockey scholarship and to be able to play at every game. And somehow he was managing. And the even more surprising part, at least to him, was that he was actually kind of smart. Casey didn't like to mention it but sometimes she needed _his_ help understanding concepts.

That went on for a while until he realized that Casey was actually Pre-Med, and in turn, so was he. Not officially, he never declared it (or anything else to be honest), but he had all the credits to the pre-requisite courses required for degree. She shook her head laughing. "You really should have picked your own classes, Venturi," she teased.

By the time he realized it was too late to drop his classes for the semester, he just decided to go with it and he declared his major alongside his favorite keener. And it turns out it wasn't so bad! Sure it was a lot of critical material, but he was _actually_ doing it. Next thing he knew, he and Casey had graduated together as pre-med students.

* * *

Med school was Casey's plan all along (and Daddy paid her tution) but it wasn't Derek's. "More school?" he groaned, slamming his head against a table. "This is never ending!" But Casey whipped him into shape right away, reminding him that there was no way he could form a career off of pre-med alone. "What do you except to do with that? Suck it up Der, we're going back to school!" She smiled, so excited (once a keener, always a keener.)

But med-school cost a lot of money. And getting in was difficult. But of course Casey had taken matters into her own hands, and she applied for him, without his consent, but what else is new? So as he held his acceptance letter in his hand, he knew he had to find some way to pay for it. He owed it to himself. He had to prove himself to everyone who had thought that Derek was nothing more than a jock.

Paying for it wasn't as hard as he thought it would have been. He got a few scholarships (his grades were pretty good after all) and he had saved up a bit of money during his years at college. Not much, but some. And being that he rode a full scholarship at Queens for the first four years, George handed over his entire college fund to cover the rest. Add in a loan or two and Derek found himself in med-school alongside Casey (because they were like Siamese twins that could not be parted).

* * *

There finally was some distance between the strange pair when Derek decided to be a surgeon. He wanted to be in the operating room where the action was. He wanted to cut people open, fix them up and give them stitches. He wanted to be the reason people had those crazy scars, even though most of the time he did his job so well that the incision line was barely visible to the naked eye (something he was very proud about).

But Derek choosing to be a surgeon did add for a whole new level of competition between the pair. Everything always came down to surgical versus medical.

"If it weren't for surgical, people would die Casey!"

"If it wasn't for medical you wouldn't know what you were cutting into Der-ek!"

What can you say? Old habits die hard.

Their classes were different and at first, so were their hours at the Sacred Heart Hospital where they were both doing their residency. They started missing each other at that point. And somehow they found themselves once again living under the same roof four years after they had finally parted from each other. "It's just easier," Casey explained when people asked them about it. It was hard finding a trustworthy roommate; one that understood your crazy hours. So they stuck together, again.

They dated a few people during college; more Derek than Casey, as per usual. Derek loved the new pick-up lines he could use. "I'm a pre-med actually," he'd say proudly. Or sometimes just "Yeah, I'm a doctor." And it wasn't even a lie anymore! But at the end of the day, no one ever really stood out. No one made it passed the third date. Not like either of them had a problem with that. Dating was hard when you barely had a day off to breathe. And after a shift, the only thing you wanted was either a foot rub, a bed, or possibly a beer (then there were times that they'd want all three).

Yeah, their career took up a lot of their life but even so they made it, once again, _together_.

* * *

Eventually, the universe aligned itself, agreeing that the pair simply shouldn't be split up! So they ended up working the same shifts. At first, they moaned and groaned about it, complaining that they already saw too much of each other. But honestly, it was a blessing in disguise.

The first time Casey had to call the time of death for a patient she had worked so closely with, she completely broke down. Lucky enough Derek was on call that night as well. He picked her off the floor in front of the nurses' station where she had collapsed and took her to the bathroom. He washed her face with cold water until some color started coming back to her. And when he finally thought she was feeling better, she threw up her small lunch, and cried her eyes out. He stood with her for as long as he could, until he was called in for an appendectomy.

Doctor Cox got on her pretty bad that night. "What, you're going to cry every time you lose someone n _ewbie_? You're not cut out to be here," he scoffed leaving her in her misery. She knew he was going to be extremely hard on them, but she didn't realize there was no grace period.

She sighed, having no option but to dust herself off and go back to work. She did her best to focus on Derek- on his first surgery, and waiting for him to come out. It worked; it kept her mind occupied for a few hours. Until she found him in one of the lounges with a look of despair etched across his features. He had messed up. Nothing serious, one of the other surgeons quickly corrected him, moving the procedure right along. But still, it was enough to shoot his confidence. And they still have another 20 hours left on their shift to complete.

She curled up to him on the couch, head lying against his shoulder not saying a thing. See, they knew "I'm sorry," was not the appropriate response. "I'm sorry" did nothing to remedy the situation. It wouldn't bring Casey's patient back, and it wouldn't fix Derek's mistake. So they just sat in silence until their beepers went off and they had to get up, rub the sleep out of their eyes and get back to work.

* * *

It had been three months since they had started and they had finally fallen into a rhythm. That night they were on call again.

He found her sitting on the couches in one of the lounges. She looked exhausted. He followed her blue eyes which seemed to be on the television that was never playing anything good. But he knew she wasn't watching the infomercial that was on. Her eyes weren't focused on anything actually. She was obviously tired but she refused to shut her eyes because if she did, she might not be able to wake herself up enough to go back to work when needed. Her hair was wild, locks falling out of her ballerina bun, high up in the middle of her head. She wore her blue scrubs which had become a second skin to her, and her black stethoscope hung around her neck.

He wanted nothing more than to pick her up and take her to bed, like he often did on those nights she didn't make it to her bedroom. But it was almost over though. They only had about seven hours left on their shift. And then they were off…for a whole 24-hours. He was going to milk it for all it was worth because it had been a painful week.

He sighed, making his way towards her. He laid across the couch horizontally, laying his head in her lap. The couch wasn't the softest, most plush thing ever (it actually hurt to lay on it in that position), but his head laid perfectly content in her lap so he didn't complain. Her right hand found its way into his hair, nails scratching his scalp the way she knew he liked. Her left hand laying flat across his chest. You'd think that she would be aware of him. But she wasn't. At least her mind wasn't. Her eyes were still locked on the TV in front of her.

He looked up at her with a frown. He knew she loved her job, but times like these when she looked all zombified, he would think that maybe this wasn't the job for her. Maybe she should work a fancy 9-5 job in an office building with big shot executives.

He pulled on the ends of her stethoscope, forcing her to bow her neck and lean down towards him. "Hey," he smiled to the girl above him. All he had to do was pick his head up a bit and close the distance between them. But he wouldn't. He'd let her breath tickle him, tease him and curse himself for doing this to himself.

She tried her best to return the smile but only managed to form a lopsided grin that didn't quite meet her eyes. "Hey you," she replied softly.

Having her attention in full, he released his grip slowly and allowed her to sit upright. "So, I've been thinking..." he started, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, trying to get her to laugh, or at least to truly smile.

She cocked an eyebrow. "That's never good," she replied dryly.

He ignored her and went on. "What are you doing Saturday night?" He asked smoothly.

"Uh...nothing." she replied before flicking his earlobe. "You know that!"

Of course, he knew that because he was off as well. "Yeah well, I was hoping that we could, you know, _do_ something." He spoke awkwardly. He was completely serious and he lost the fake charm that he had been previously using.

She winced. "Come on Der," she whined. "All I want to do is sleep for the next 24-hours...and possibly bathe," she commented, wrinkling her nose. She'd have to find the time to do so.

He looked up at her like a wounded puppy. "Come on! Please?" He begged. He never begged. But Casey... She brought it out of him.

"You learned a new word?" She spoke, acting surprised. "Such a good boy!" She went on, her left hand trailed from his chest to his stomach, rubbing it as she would a puppy. "Who's a good boy? Yes you are!" She cooed.

He groaned, unamused. "Case, I'm serious! We haven't done anything outside of work for months now. MONTHS!" He stressed.

"That's not true! We went home for Marti's birthday!" She defended.

He looked up at her blankly. "That was the first week we started working."

She remained quiet for a minute. "Has it really been that long?" She asked softly.

"Yesss." He hissed.

"But I'm so tired Der," she pouted.

"I know you are but...honestly honey, I can't even picture you outside of your scrubs anymore," he shuttered. He could vaguely remember how nice she used to dress. But that's just a memory. "And let me tell you they do _nothing_ for your ass McDonald." He added with a pointed look. "Do you even have normal clothes anymore?"

She looked down at him gapping. "Hey!" She yelled, slapping her palm against his chest roughly. "I'll have you know I own tons of clothes!"

"So wear some? Anything but blue! Tomorrow night?" He suggested.

She sighed, pretending to think about it for a moment. "Promise you'll wear your leather jacket?"

"Of course," he promised. It didn't really go with his scrubs so he too had stopped wearing real clothes.

She nodded, it seemed she had finally given in and agreed until she suddenly stopped. "Wait…tomorrow night?" She asked again, a pained expression across her face.

"Mhmmm," He hummed.

"Sorry Der, I actually have plans." She replied, biting her lip.

His face fell completely. "Oh," He muttered.

She leaned forward bowing her head painfully to brush a kiss onto his left cheek. "Happy Birthday Der," she whispered against his skin. She pulled back, looking down at him with a smirk.

He was tempted to turn his head just an inch and catch her lips but decided against it. "You remembered?" He asked softly.

"I was waiting for it to turn 12 o'clock," she smiled, pointing at the clock that hung right above the TV. "And, I already got us tickets to a hockey game tomorrow night," she added.

His head shot up, and leveled with hers. His left hand landed by her hip, steadying himself in front of her. "Seriously?" He asked excitedly. It was the best news he had heard in ages.

She giggled softly. "Down boy. It's a crappy game and nose bleed seats but I managed to remember to get them." she shrugged, bushing her hair out of his face.

 _Remembering_ being the keyword. It's hard to turn your mind off from work with the hours they spent at the hospital. They had already missed countless birthdays and anniversaries because their minds never left the building. But somehow she managed to go out of her way on a day off and get him tickets because she knew that he needed it.

"You are amazing," he told her, leaning his forehead against hers. With his free hand, he skimmed his fingertips over her cheek softly.

"It was nothing." She shrugged again bashfully, but she couldn't manage to keep the 100-watt smile from her face. She has dozens of calls to make every day at the hospital. Some that resulted in life and death. And sometimes she forgets that simple decisions, like buying tickets to a hockey game, could be just as meaningful.

"Awww, JD, don't they remind you of us?" Elliot cooed, entering the lounge with JD trailing behind her. They fell into the adjacent couches, meaning that the supply room was taken, or that they were actually just as tired.

"Yep, adorable!" JD joked, knowing it would set the pair off.

Casey blushed and Derek sat up vertically so quickly that it made his head spin. He closed his eyes quickly before pressing his palms into his eyes, trying to steady himself.

"Did those two finally go at it?" Dr. Cox asked passing by. "I've got 50 bucks saying it happens this month!" He added before disappearing down the hallway again.

"Not yet!" JD called out, laughing at their uncomfortable reactions.

The pair simultaneously let out a groan. It was going to be a long few months.

* * *


End file.
